


these words are not enough, except for now

by kinpika



Series: BLUE [20]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate way of saying I Love You, F/M, Retribution Spoilers, Spoilers, i guess, i love them, they're dumb okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 09:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21159203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinpika/pseuds/kinpika
Summary: Even when Logan looks at him. An incredulous stare that doesn’t soften, doesn’t harden. Sits in limbo, with a high flush and smalloh.Single sound, final nail. Stumble to recover, but Ricardo sinks his teeth into his lip, forces the smile.





	these words are not enough, except for now

Ten-fourty-three at night, and Ricardo has a revelation.

Thunderbolt kind, where his fingers go numb and his heart kicks it up to eleven. World slipping out from underneath him. Not sure where to place his hands on the couch or if the tv should go three bars lower, two higher. If that magazine on the edge of the table was too old, or the way Logan was curled up at the edge, tapping away at the laptop, was too.

At _home_. Too real. How he gets up to get the menus, a distraction of all kinds. Crouched down in the kitchen, bottom drawer, fishing through all the slips of paper. Find the one she was talking about, not focusing on the way he was shaking.

How he just couldn’t stop smiling. But Ricardo shakes it out, like he does for everything else. Ignores the way that his stomach does a little flip-flop, when she smiles at him. Big and bright and holding up something that he can’t make out, not really. Even as he drops the pamphlet on the pillows next to her.

Leans in, rocks back. Words that threaten to bubble up and out of his lips, wet the skin. Can’t breathe. Ricardo digs his fingers in the material, threats of burn marks being left behind a thing of the past, and looks at her.

Looks at Logan as he whispers, “I love you.”

One long moment, where they both blink. Stare. Broken only by the way Logan stresses: “_what_?” in such a way, Ricardo wants to take it back. Eat those words back up, forget he ever said them.

“I… love—you. I love _you._” Again. Floodgates open. Can’t take it back now, might as well keep going, right?

Even when Logan looks at him. An incredulous stare that doesn’t soften, doesn’t harden. Sits in limbo, with a high flush and small _oh_. Single sound, final nail. Stumble to recover, but Ricardo sinks his teeth into his lip, forces the smile.

“It’s okay,” is what he says, but there’s something slipping between his ribs, at his heart now.

“No, I mean… thank you?”

Laptop long since abandoned, and she tries to untangle herself. Get closer. Stops herself, midway. “I just didn’t expect—I mean like… y’know? It’s—”

“A lot. I get it.” Ricardo intercepts, moves back. Fingers free of hers at the last second. Eyes that meet the floor and crosses his arms. Digs his nails in.

Tries not to think about how many years it had been, and that the words did not hold the apparent weight all the books had told him they would. That this would’ve been a surefire returned moment, candlelight, softness. Not ordering Chinese off a menu and watching how Logan hangs over the back of the couch, reaching for him.

“I’m gonna have a shower,” Ricardo says, voice feeling faraway. Gutted. “It’s fine, Logan, I promise.”

Low power. Reason for the mind to go sticky and still. A quick retreat even as Logan tumbles over the back of the couch, five steps behind. Ricardo barely gets the water on hot before she’s in behind him. Hands hovering over his skin, before she turns her face up.

But he’s in despite the cold, lukewarm, hot. Scrubs at the feeling, doesn’t think about how it’s her fancy soaps he’s using. Or how she tears the door back, steam piling around her feet.

Ricardo gets midway into turning around, when she yells. Eyes squeezed shut, fingers damn near snapping the door off its hinges, too loud and honest kind of yell.

“I love you!”

He jumps, nearly slips on the tiles. Nearly goes ass over, as she goes to yell it again. Except Ricardo is quicker, a hand over her mouth, as he.

_Laughs_. Wipes the water from his eyes as she exhales around his palm. Logan makes a face, pulls back. Tips her head under the water to wash out her mouth, a mumble of ‘soap’, but that’s the opportunity. Hands around her waist, keeping her in.

Logan squeals, his name, hands pushing his face from hers. Even as Ricardo hugs her, says those words over again. Feels his hoodie soak, how he pushes her hair from her face. Catching the drops of water over her temples, tracing the scars _just_ there. Lips against her skin, and she mumbles against the column of his throat.

Tomorrow, Ricardo would worry about the way the bathmat was sopping wet, and how his hoodie would need two good cycles in the dryer. How they still hadn’t ordered dinner, and how Logan’s stomach growled, but she wouldn’t let go. When it wasn’t eleven-fourteen at night, and he didn’t have his nose buried in her hair, as she said it again. One more time.

If only because she had said it back. And her lips were warm on his, the tiles cold against his back. Her fingers low on his belly, and it’s another delivery. Whisper, against the collarbone, right there. A little more left, a little more over his heart.


End file.
